Boats we have OWNED,

Boats we have been LOANED,

Boats we have KNOWN, but not OWNED

Boats we have loved and been loved on . . .

Once you admit to yourself that you are a

boat nut,

the rest is easy.

Just accept the fact
that you have a compulsive need
to make a boat payment every month
for the rest of your life,
and get on with it.

What follows may seem crazy
but it is mostly successful wheeling, dealing,
and good ole southern takin' care o' bidness,
without much money beyond that
continuous monthly payment
to keep trying to find the ideal boat.

(As if there were such a thing)

Please indulge me for a moment,
and let me share with you the most wonderful
perspective about boating I have ever read.

Believe me, my young friend,
there is nothing
-- absolutely nothing --
half so much worth doing as
simply messing about in boats.

Simply messing
about in boats
-- or with boats.

In or out of 'em,
it doesn't matter.

Nothing seems really to matter,
that's the charm of it.

Whether you get away,
or whether you don't;
whether you arrive at your destination
or whether you reach somewhere else,
or whether you never get anywhere at all,
you're always busy,
and you never do anything in particular;
and when you've done it
there's always something else to do,
and you can do it if you like,
but you'd much better not
...

You may recognize this as the words of the
River Rat
from Kenneth Grahame's classic book,
The Wind In The Willows.

In my family,
my father turned into the proverbial river rat
as he came to love the sea from his father.

So,

all of this is clearly

MY father's fault!

Here are 4 generations of Walter R. Gulleys.

Good grief, my great grandfather had more hair than I did!

So, what's all this got to do with old boats?

Well, about the time when
Walter R. Gulley Sr.
(above, left)
was Hizzoner the Mayor
of Pascagoula, Mississippi,
his wife Cleo
(my Great Grandmother),
sponsored the launching of
the USS Montour
at the Ingalls Shipbuilding Co.
during World War II in 1944.

Not too many years later,

Walter R. Gulley Jr.
took my father,
Walter R. Gulley III,
to sea with him on a minesweeper.
This one, to be exact.

This was in 1952, when my dad was 6 years old.
He was aboard when the above picture was taken.

Much later,

my father worked at Ingalls Shipbuilding,

in Pascagoula, Mississippi,
on among other things,
installing the SONAR systems in
nuclear submarines
that later played a role in
Tom Clancey's book
Hunt For Red October.

It all started with my grandfather
Walter R. Gulley, Jr.,
Commander, USN.

He was the Engineering Officer
aboard the USS Threat during WW2,
as she swept mines
off Omaha beach on the morning of the
D-day invasion at Normandy.

One of her sister ships, the USS Tide hit a mine
and was destroyed during this operation.

I am here today because the USS Threat,
and her skipper,
brought my grandfather safely home.

When the Korean War came along,
my grandfather was the skipper who
commissioned the USS Impeccable,
AM (Anti-Mine) 320
for active duty.

He was later promoted to Commander,
which is too senior to command a mine sweeper.
He then turned the Impeccable
over to a new skipper in Honolulu.
From there, she went into the Korean War
where she was awarded several battle stars.

And the darn Navy recently
came up with ANOTHER
USS Impeccable
(T-AGOS 23) .

Click for more information.

I think its really cool that the new USNS Impeccable
was finished and commissioned just up the river from
Pascagoula, Mississippi,
where this all started!

As a licensed Nurse (BSN, RN),
I may never experience
my grandfather's burden of command,
but when I take the helm of a boat,
I understand through him,
that I am the Captain;
fully responsible
for the safe passage of my vessel,
and for returning my crew
and passengers safely to shore.

Now I ask you,
how could I ever top
a family history like this?

Well, silly me eventually tried with a race boat,
but here are some of the other
Gulley silliness' along the way ...

My dad got his first boat at the age of 8.
It was a 12 foot wooden plank skiff with a 5 1/2 hp Elgin outboard.
His father had it made as a birthday present.

I sure wish I had a picture of it.

Every family near the Pascagoula beach had boats of some kind.
There was always a boat to play on somewhere.
Pirates, fishing, swimming, exploring the rivers and swamps and islands!
What a childhood dad had!

The first Gulley family boat was a 16 1/2 foot Lyman lapstrake
hull with a 35 hp Johnson Golden Javelin outboard.

It served for many years, but was eventually replaced with an
18 foot Fabuglass hull with an 80 hp West Bend outboard.
Chrysler bought out West Bend just about the time the the motor died,
and it was replaced with a 105 hp Chrysler outboard.
Talk about POWER!
Dad somehow avoided killing himself with this all through high school.

Again, no pictures are available.

Dad's Uncle George had a sail boat and a 23 foot Sport Craft I/O he let dad use.

As you can see if you roll the mouse over the picture,
he had fun with his friends...

Still well before my time, dad went into the Army.
Like any serious boat nut, he made the best of things.

Here he is on a water skiing outing on the Saigon River in Viet Nam.

I have seen a color slide of dad on a slalom ski behind this boat.
Perhaps I can track it down and put it here too.

When I was little we were down to an inflatable dingy with a 2 hp Johnson.
Best mom and dad could do with kids, school, and a house.
But at least they got me on the water.

Then dad rebuilt a junked, seized-up 1960-something
Evinrude 18 hp Fastwin outboard
and put it on a 14 foot aluminum boat.
Things were looking up.
Now I could plane off on the water.

Eventually we got a real boat.
Here is the oldest Gulley boat I have a picture of.

It was a Larson 26 foot cabin cruiser with a 260 hp Mercruiser I/O.

We spent many wonderful weekends on it in and around
South Haven, Michigan when I was in junior high.
My syster Tanya and I had some great adventures on the Black River,
and run-ins with the law, in our little 12 foot outboard skiff
with the 2 hp Johnson from the old inflatable boat.

It was the best of times,
but I still tell dad I was traumatized
by the absence of a Boston Whaler to play on
during these formative years.

We named her the Knot Home.

My sister and I grew up spending our summers on her.
Roll the mouse over the picture to see how
little I was when I learned to drive her.
See, I TOLD you this was all dad's fault!

The Knot Home was a 1965 38' Chris-Craft Constellation.
She was built in the Algonac, MI plant before fiberglass boats came along.
Even the drawer bottoms in the galley were made of mahogany.
(Mahogany boards, NOT plywood or veneer!)

These were wonderful times for both of us.
If you go to our old F1-24 web site and scroll way down under
"Meet the Team", my sister Tanya has a link
to another Knot Home picture from her own fond memories.

But, reality eventually bites,
and with $10,000 rot-repair bills,
the Knot Home just had to go.

She was traded in on this plastic-fantastic which dad still owns to this day.

It is a 23 foot Century cuddy cabin with a 250 hp Mercruiser I/O.
She was built in 1986, the last year Century was in Michigan.
They are now a Yahama Boat Company, in Panama City, Florida.

This boat has been on 4 of the 5 Great Lakes,
and crossed 3 of them many times.
She has cruised extensively on the Gulf Coast,
including to the mouth of the Mississippi River
120 miles south of New Orleans.

To be continued . . .

Next update I will continue with MY first boat.

Please check back soon!